While it had long been rumored that Netflix and Channel 4’s Derry Girls would be coming to an end sooner rather than later, it looks like those rumors have finally been confirmed. Lisa McGee, writer and creator of the 90s Northern Irish series, confirmed on Twitter that the show’s upcoming third season will be its last, the final stage in a pre-planned journey for the four young women (and a young boy) audiences have come to love.
McGee released a statement on her Twitter page, both to announce that the season will be going into production soon and also honor its ending. Derry Girls is a finite story, she said, taking place over a period of time when its protagonists and the world around them are changing at a rapid rate:
“It was always the plan to say goodbye after three series. Derry Girls is a coming of age story; following five ridiculous teenagers as they slowly...very slowly...start to become adults, while around them the place they call home starts to change too, and Northern Ireland enters a new, more hopeful phase — which was a small, magical window of time. Derry Girls is a love letter to the place I come from and the people who shaped me. It has been an honor to write it and I will be forever proud of everything it’s achieved. I’d like to thank the people of Derry and Northern Ireland for getting behind us. Thanks also to the team behind the series, the incredible Hat Trick Productions and a special thanks to Channel 4 — the channel I grew up watching; the channel that made me want to write comedy and the only channel that could have made our show.
Who knows if Erin, Clare, Orla, Michelle and James will return in some other guise someday, but for now this is it for us and we’re excited to start filming this series with our incredible cast and crew to hopefully take our loyal fans on one last adventure.”
While production has yet to begin on the final series, starring Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, and Dylan Llewellyn, McGee’s statement gives long time fans a chance to mourn the ending of a truly unique show celebrating youth in a tough period of history. And with the U.S. having to wait even longer for the series to premiere, we’re lucky to have a bit more time to say goodbye to our favorite citizens of Derry.
In the meantime, American fans can catch up or relive the first two seasons of Derry Girls on Netflix. Check out McGee’s full statement below: